Football's No.1 question - who'll make way for Paul Chapman? - may not be resolved until Friday.

Chapman appears to have recovered from a hamstring strain sustained in week one of the finals and is set to return to the Cats line-up for Saturday's grand final against Hawthorn after training strongly during the week.

It's expected that one of Travis Varcoe, Mathew Stokes, David Wojcinski, James Kelly or Tom Lonergan will be the unlucky team-mate to make way for Chapman.

But according to veteran midfielder Cameron Ling, the issue may not necessarily be resolved with the announcement of the grand final squad on Thursday night.

"We'll find out as we always do on Friday after the last training session," said Ling before training at Skilled Stadium on Thursday.

"We train tomorrow up at the MCG and will have our final team meeting and we'll all find out then."

Ling dismissed reports that Varcoe was favoured to make way because of general soreness despite assurances from coach Mark Thompson following the club's preliminary final win over the Western Bulldogs that his place was safe.

"I don't think he's in too much doubt," Ling said.

"Provided he trains today and tomorrow he should be right."

"At this time of year there's probably a lot of sore blokes in Hawthorn's camp, a lot of sore blokes in our camp but as long as you get through training, you should be fine."

Asked how Chapman has pulled up from the club's closed training session on Wednesday, Ling said, "good, really good."

"He's happy and going along well."

Both Chapman and Varcoe took part in a relaxed final training session at a sun-drenched Skilled Stadium on Thursday morning before 5000 happy Cats faithful.

Ling said the Cats had tried to stick to routine this week and generally know what to expect and how best to prepare in the 48-hours leading up to the opening bounce on Saturday.